Friday, October 24

when your 11 year old, very excited, very self-confident middle school daughter boards a bus at 2:15am with 75 kids and chaperones, to spend an entire weekend exploring Catalina Island with the Catalina Island Marine Institute of Toyon Bay, and doesn't kiss you goodbye, or even look out the bus window as you are frantically jumping up and down like a freak in your pajamas, to get her attention to wave goodbye, because she is too busy talking with most everyone on the bus, because she is a goof ball and is friends with most of the them and is already having a good time even though it is the middle of the night and we both have gotten, at most, 2 1/2 hours of sleep, and she doesn't care that her mother is still jumping up and down and waving her hands left and right and remembers that she didn't label her name on the duffel bag or sleeping bag, and thinking that texting is actually a good thing because that is the only way she will be able to contact me and that I can't believe I actually forgot to bring the camera to take going-away pictures and as I am thinking that the silly parents taking pictures with their cell phones are nuts because how good could that picture actually come out but hey, I've got my cell and why not give it a shot and the bus is slowing starting to pull away...........

and there she goes.

For three days.

To this beautiful place....

So what's a parent to do at 3:15am now.

I logged on to Hannah's school's website and here is what I saw, much to my horror:

ParentLinkWe are temporarily experiencing some technical difficulties with parentlink. As a result, grade and attendance information is not being displayed for any student. We are working closely with technical support at parentlink to rectify the situation. We expect to be able to display grades and attendance by the end of the day on Friday, October 24th. Thank you for your patience as we work through these difficulties.

Thursday, October 23

1. shedding leaves in fall: describes trees and bushes that shed their leaves in the fall2. of deciduous trees: describes a forest or wood that is composed mostly of deciduous trees3. shed after developmental stage: describes the teeth, antlers, or wings of animals and birds that are shed after a stage of development4. shed easily or at intervals: describes the scales of fish that are shed easily or at intervals

I guess I kind of didn't really care about the word "deciduous" when I lived back on the east coast. Fall came and we took it for what it was. The leaves changed colors and fell from the trees. Wintertime, all was barren except the evergreens.

When we moved here and bought our first home, we actually had choices in landscaping since we were solely responsible for it's upkeep. And we ('cause we are lazy and/or don't have the time) have always chosen to have trees that are NOT deciduous.

Until now.

Dammit.

Now we didn't just plant one of these trees - we planted 4.

Purple Robe Locust.

It boasts a gorgeous grouping of flowers in the spring and early summer, of which we fell in love with.

Zoom in and look.

Little..........yellow...........leaves.....grrrr

The beginning of the end of this tree.

Soon it will be dropping all its leaves.

But we are not fretting because we have this big boy....

to suck up anything and everything that falls on the ground from our 4 small trees

that are NOT deciduous.

Anyhoo - the leaves are very slowly starting to turn. Our "peak" isn't until Mid December usually. So we have a ways to go yet.

As I read my family's blogs and miss all the beauty that accompanies autumn, I looked around our yard and thought that this is just how it is here, and I love it for what it is. Different, is all.

Here are some pictures of the yard.

(side note: No pumpkins yet, for us. The temps are still in the mid 80's and I choose to wait, so I am not cleaning up a rotting mess. This weekend though - Walmart - $3.50 a piece. No fun associated with that task around here!!!)

Sunday, October 19

If having no pictures is boring, skip today and wait for another post.

So where did we last leave off.

Breakfast with my sister at the Piggy Place....

right....

Monday went to the doctor to find out I have tendinitis in my shoulder and I have to go to a specialist. No time. I will deal with that later.

WORKED ON THE HARVEST FESTIVAL FOR CONNOR'S SCHOOL

THAT I AM IN CHARGE OF.

oh and it's my kids birthday - we squeezed that in there somewhere.

Baked cute cupcakes and had a little celebration.

No pictures. I am a loser.

Tuesday Bill left for his third business trip this month - yup, that puts him at a trip each week this month, so far. Connor went with him to visit some friends we have in Colorado.

WORKED ON THE HARVEST FESTIVAL FOR CONNOR'S SCHOOL

THAT I CAN'T BELIEVE I AM IN CHARGE OF.

Attended quick meeting at Hannah's school pertaining to trip to Catalina Island that she is going on next week with 75 of her closest 6th grade friends and teachers.

Did I say no parents can go?

Wednesday comes and my sister goes...home that is. Dennis, Kimmy and Matthew packed up after a really great, really fun, really full (I'm not talkin' about our bellies...) really short visit.

As soon as they shut the door to the rental car, backed out of my driveway,

I CONTINUED TO WORK ON THE HARVEST FESTIVAL FOR CONNOR'S SCHOOL THAT IS NOW A MERE 3 DAYS AWAY.

Then came Thursday and it was Garrin's first day of school. Let me 'splain...

Last week, I did not blog about taking Garrin for an extensive hearing test and then a meeting with the school district, where we learned that a. his hearing is perfectly fine and b. he has qualified to enter the school system here in an early childhood program for speech. Out the window goes the fabulous preschool Garrin had started and hello - Welcome to Connor's School 4 half day's a week!

Back to the first day of school.........Well it was Thursday and I pretty much had to be there all day to get things ready for THE FLIPPIN' HARVEST FESTIVAL THAT I GUESS I VOLUNTEERED TO CHAIR THIS YEAR WHAT.WAS.I.THINKING? And my little guy had a great, first day at "the big school." The teachers are in love with him.........how could they not be??

And Friday. Friday was D Day for me. I can't think of a better way to greet my friends, the teachers, the administration and all 800 families from our school, than with a cold sore the size of Mount Rushmore on my lip....

fantastic.

What did I expect?

All's well that ends well.

And there you have it. The stress and the nervousness - came to an end. And a great end indeed.

This weekend, we spent both days and nights in the peacefulness of our backyard. The weather was ideal. We grilled, we watched baseball (which I hate, but I wasn't complaining...) and football, we lit fires in our firepits, made s'mores, toasted marshmallows, watched our crazy kids night swim in our pool, played ball, read books and caught up on magazines, snuggled with blankets outdoors while watching the lights of the strip glowing and the planes coming in and the stars twinkling....